According to Very Good Recipes there are 8390 active food blogs (in English). Add to that the number of food magazines, food startups, farmer groups and food aid agencies online, and there are literally tens of thousands of food websites to visit.

So where to start? Of course you are likely already started and have a list of your favorites. But with the landscape changing daily, there are always new sites to discover and enjoy.

Below is a list of some of the most interesting food projects underway utilizing web technology. Some are new and some old; a few have loyal followings and others should; some are still in startup mode and while others are well underway. Yet all are ideas that deserve attention.

1. Ending Hunger: In order to motivate people to help stop hunger around the world, Ending Hunger has created a visually provocative website chock full of videos, Facebook discussions and photographic essays. But perhaps most impressive and useful are the maps.

2. Pastoral Plate: This Northern California Meat Buying Club has been around only a little more than a year, but they are succeeding at an idea others have not yet been able to pull off. Functioning as the distributor, the site finds great local meat and allows members to shop online, choosing items from many different farms. Orders are filled once a month so products reflect seasonality.

3. The Edible Schoolyard: A project first born and nurtured in Berkeley, California by the Chez Pannise Foundation, the Edible Schoolyard is now going national. The group's mission "is to build and share a food curriculum for all schools" and its website connects schools with garden and cooking programs throughout the country. Visit for ideas on how to convert your school's food program (or lack there of) and find the curriculum to do it.

4. ZeroCater: Anyone who has ever worked as an Administrative Assistant can tell you the bane of their office existence is lunch. Taking orders that end in "and ask them to hold the mayo" or "can you make sure there is no gluten?" becomes a daily nightmare. ZeroCater was created to do that work for you. And perhaps the most innovative part about the company is the fact that it has a built-in revenue plan, unlike most food startups online.

5. The Greenhorns: While not a new, the Greenhorns do have a newly designed website featuring free literature and resources for those new to farming. In addition, their recently made film can now be purchased for home viewing, and a series of webisodes about the challenges of becoming a new farmer will be featured on the site.

6. John West: This UK company allows consumers to track the fish in every can they process by typing a tracking number (found on the can) into their website. The site is engaging and lays out the policies and values of the company and its fisher-people by using multimedia and great site design. If only every company were as committed to sustainability and made such information available...

7. SciDevNet: SciDev.Net is not new, nor does it have a new look or design. But if you don't know about it and are interested at all in global development you are missing out. The site has a special Agriculture and Environment section (highlights of which can be delivered to your inbox) which reports the latest in the ways science and innovation are being used to improve agriculture and the lives of small landholding farmers. From articles on everything from the latest in genetic engineering to the need for agroforestry, the site is a must read.

8. Where Does Your Garden Grow? While this website is not yet up and running, the idea behind it is intriguing. Every Last Morsel aims to have users locate their garden on a map in order to then promote neighborhood sales and trades of food. A simple concept, it will be interesting to see what comes of the site now that it has raised more than $10,000 on Kickstarter.

9.2012 Farm Bill: Last but certainly not least, What's at Stake is a series of articles created by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy to translate the behemoth farm bill legislation into plain language. Issues such as health, local food, and energy are tackled one by one in this series on the 2012 agricultural bill being discussed in Congress.

I have been reporting on food and agriculture for more than ten years, airing on NPR, The World, Latino USA, Living on Earth. I studied the food system in depth as a fellow and co-lecturer in the Africa Reporting Project at UC Berkeley’s School of Journalism and completed se...